6

Imagining the Possibilities: Accessing the Envision Brainset

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

—ALBERT EINSTEIN¹

Much of the same brain circuitry that is used to encode and retrieve real memories can be used to encode and retrieve hypothetical events that are oh-so-helpful in keeping us on terra firma.² Our Caveman (who is himself a product of the envision brainset) has just displayed one of the reasons that humans have survived these many millennia. We can “see” what is likely to happen if we choose a course of action without actually having to experience the consequences of that action. Thanks to the relatively recent neurological developments in our prefrontal cortex and our memory encoding machinery (an area of the brain called the hippocampus),³ we do not have to leap off cliffs like lemmings. We can foresee our imagined fate and avoid it if we so choose.

From Memory to Imagination

In order to understand how our brains “do” creativity, we need to reach way back in evolutionary history—back to an era preceding that of our Caveman #2. As we discussed in Chapter Three, the last part of the human brain to develop was the prefrontal cortex. This is also the last part of your brain to develop as you mature. In fact, evidence suggests that the prefrontal lobes are not entirely developed until around age 25. (Now here's an unsettling thought: Professor Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia recently completed a seven-year study that indicated our brains—starting with the prefrontal cortex—begin to decline around the age of 27.⁴ If Salthouse is correct, we have two years or so of peak prefrontal brain power! But don't worry; thanks to neuroplasticity—the remarkable power of our brain to repair, regenerate, and reorganize itself throughout adulthood⁵—we have many decades of creative productivity ahead of us!)

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), as you'll also remember from Chapter Two, is the home of the executive center. The amazing things that the PFC allows us to do include planning (to fly like a bird), abstract thinking (to envision what would happen if we try to fly like a bird), and conscious decision making (walk away from the cliff without trying to fly). The PFC has connections to areas of the brain where the contents of memory are encoded and stored. When the circuits that connect these areas are activated, we are able to “remember” a future that hasn't happened yet and make better survival decisions.

The same brain circuitry that developed to help ensure our survival has a serendipitous side effect: it also allows us to generate nonsurvival-related creative ideas. We can use this important brain circuitry to imagine rearranging our living room furniture, make up a character for a new novel, devise an original plan for robbing a bank, or a conceive a design for powering a winged aircraft. Thus, the ability to purposefully evoke memories and mental images is the precursor to both imagination and the ability to consciously form creative ideas⁶—the essence of the envision brainset.

Defining the Envision Brainset

You learned about how to access a receptive and nonjudgmental brainset in the last chapter on the absorb brainset. That ability to enter the absorb brainset will set you up to observe new things in your environment, to see potential connections between things in your environment and problems you wish to solve creatively, and also to be receptive to creative ideas that may originate in parts of your brain outside of conscious awareness. Now you'll learn how to use your innate brain circuitry to deliberately imagine novel solutions to problems using mental imagery. The envision brainset is the brain activation state that facilitates imagination. The envision brainset also provides a link between the deliberate and the spontaneous pathways to creativity by allowing you to retain purposeful and deliberate control of the contents of conscious awareness while accessing information and ideas that are developed at more spontaneous and disinhibited levels of cognitive processing.⁷

The envision state is well known to many children, actors, and day-dreamers. It is the creator of your so-called “inner world.” But if your mental comfort zone is the reason or evaluate brainset, you may either find it hard to activate this brainset or you may consider it childish or foolish to attempt to do so. Yet the benefits of the envision brainset are far-reaching and extend beyond the ability to develop creative ideas.

We have already discussed how you can use the envision brainset to make decisions that can have an impact on your safety and your future. However, this brainset also provides the neural basis for how you form a coherent picture of the world (your world schema) and how you form a coherent picture of yourself (your personal identity).⁸ A coherent worldview and a sense of identity are both crucial to high mental functioning and good mental health. Further, the ability to envision is gaining rapid acceptance as one of the most sought-after qualities in business managers and corporate executives. The ability to envision also has implications for health. Several studies suggest that mental imagery can aid the healing process.⁹ Finally, the ability to use mental imagery to practice athletic skills has shown benefits in sports such as basketball and golf.¹⁰ Many coaches incorporate visualization into their practice routines. Musicians, surgeons, and even high-voltage power line inspectors report using mental imagery to practice their skills.¹¹ So the bottom line is that even those of you who are skeptical of the value of this brainset will benefit from developing your ability to use it frequently and fully.

The envision brainset shares some features with the absorb brainset, including the preference for novelty and a mild state of mental disinhibition. However, the most important factors in the envision brainset are the generation of mental imagery and the use of hypothetical thinking. In this chapter, you'll learn techniques for increasing both the vividness of mental imagery and the frequency of imaginal or hypothetical thinking.

Mental Imagery

Mental imagery, or “thinking without words,” is a type of cognition that employs the perceptual parts of the brain ordinarily used for processing the sensory information of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Mental imagery is quasi perceptual, meaning that the perceptions are occurring without sensory input from the outside world. But no, they're not hallucinations! (However, many creative individuals report semi-hallucinatory experiences, such as seeing the shapes of objects in clouds or shadows, or hearing the sound of music or voices in the rustling of wind in trees.¹²) There are differences between psychotic hallucinations and creative mental images: first, when mental images related to creative problems are formed—even when they appear in the mind spontaneously—they are not mistaken for reality. Second, when you evoke mental images, you are consciously controlling the imagery material, whereas hallucinations generally occur outside of one's conscious direction.

Scientists, such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking, as well as artists, writers, Web designers, engineers, and musicians, have written about the importance of mental imagery in their creative process.¹³ Highly creative people appear to be able to form vivid mental images and manipulate those images both to envision creative dilemmas and to come up with creative solutions to problems.

Most of us can “image” music, including the background instruments and voices of a favorite recording, and we may unconsciously keep time to the auditory image by tapping a foot or moving our head. Most of us will smile when asked to summon the image of a loved one's face. Most of us will curl our lip when asked to imagine biting into a lemon, indicating that we are able to form sensory images of objects that aren't actually there so vividly that they can affect our behavior. Though there are individual differences in how vividly you can imagine sights or sounds that are not there, you can learn to improve your ability to vividly image.¹⁴

Harvard Professor Stephen Kosslyn (now at Stanford University) is one of the world's leading investigators in the field of mental imagery. He and others have discovered that imaging activates the same parts of the brain that are activated by actual sensory input. This means that, as you've probably heard before, these parts of the brain can't tell the difference between the real object and the imagined object. Further, when you visualize an object, neurons in the occipital cortex (the seeing center of the brain) fire in a map that is spatially arranged just like the object you're imagining. The intensity of the firing of these neurons correlates with the vividness of the imagery.¹⁵

One way to increase your creative capacity is to improve your ability to mentally image, and research indicates that this is definitely possible.¹⁶ Mental imagery includes not only your capacity to see images that are not in the outside environment; it also includes the capacity to hear, smell, feel, and taste that which is not there. (The best way to increase the vividness of mental imagery is to practice imaging. To increase your ability to mentally image, practice Envision Exercises #1 and #2.)

Although you will want to enhance your ability to image across all senses, you may find that it is easier for you to begin by manipulating the visual modality of mental imagery. We can divide visual imagery into two basic types. The first type is “pictorial,” in which you visualize a replica of an object or scene as it appears in real life or as you might capture it with a camera. Exercise #1 is an example of pictorial imaging. If you have difficulty visualizing pictorially, it may help to physically “trace” the object before trying to visualize it. This tactic, used by artists for over a hundred years, will evoke muscle memory as well as visual memory of the object.¹⁷

The second type of visual image is “diagrammatic,” in which the image is seen as a symbol or diagram of a real object or scene, such as a map or a blueprint. Such diagrams can be very useful if you're trying to locate an object or build anything from a child's table to a skyscraper. As an example, close your eyes and image the East Coast of the United States. There are fourteen states that touch the Atlantic Ocean. Can you name them? Diagrammatic images involve an extra step of mental processing. In addition to imaging an object, you have to transform that object to a symbolic representation before visualizing it. Diagrammatic images allow you to see relationships between objects or between parts of the same object rather than focusing on realistic details. They activate a part of the brain referred to as the “where” visual stream. (This is separate from the “what” visual stream that is involved in visualizing objects rather than locations.)¹⁸

There are also different sets of neurons in the visual cortex that govern the shape, color, and movement of objects and scenery. Therefore, when you “see” a static image in your mind, you are using a different part of the brain than when you try to rotate or manipulate the object or scene in some way. In order to enhance your ability to use mental imagery in a creative manner, it's important to practice both seeing and manipulating objects. Envision Exercises 1–5 comprise a fun set of visualization exercises.

Another way to practice manipulating mental images is through guided sequential visualizations. In one of my creativity courses, we practice a sequential visualization called the secret garden. In the garden sequence, students begin by imagining that they're being transported to a secret garden. Throughout the course, students return to this garden. In between sessions, they consider what types of flora they would like to have in their gardens—from aromatic pines to exotic and colorful blossoms. As the course progresses, even students who had trouble visualizing a tree on their first attempt find that they can now enjoy the fragrances, sights, and sounds of their own unique garden. You can download an audio version of the secret garden sequence from the Web site http://ShelleyCarson.com.

The ability to use mental imagery alone would not be creative. However, when the ability to form and manipulate mental images is combined with hypothetical thinking, the possibilities of what can be conceived are truly astounding!

Hypothetical Thinking

Hypothetical thinking is the foundation of your imagination. When you employ hypothetical or conjectural thinking, you are mentally imaging something that is not manifest in the world of reality (reality being the state of things as they objectively exist, not as we would have them exist). Your conjecture is not “true,” or at least it has not been shown to be true. You are thinking in “What ifs.”

We've already discussed how “What if?” thinking can help you make decisions (such as whether to jump off a cliff and try to fly). However, hypothetical thinking is not limited by the constraints of current reality. You can use “What if?” or hypothetical thinking to speculate on situations that are not probable in the real world, as well as those that might actually be possible. What if people had three arms instead of two? What if you use red instead of green for the color of the grass in a watercolor painting? What if you replace the cinnamon in Aunt Millie's pumpkin pie recipe with cayenne pepper? What if light is both a particle and a wave? What if Darth Vader turns out to be related to Luke Skywalker? What if you switch the melody from a major key to a minor key? What if you let the killer escape from the asylum in Chapter Twenty-Three? What if Chicago were overrun with Martians? What if I take the next exit and drive to Ohio instead of Florida?

There is an endless array of “What if?” scenarios we could visualize in just a single day. We have this elegant hardware that allows us to imagine, but how often do we use it? We have this sophisticated video game right inside our skull, there to be played at any hour of the day or night. How often do you play with it? Creative people play with mental imagery and hypothetical thinking a lot … and the results are not inconsequential. Einstein claims to have used this power of hypothetical mental imaging to form his theory of relativity. He described his creative process as seeing “more or less clear images which can be ‘voluntarily’ reproduced and combined … this combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.”¹⁹ This is a good description of working within the envision brainset.

All right. I'm getting a mental image of those of you who prefer the evaluative brainset rolling your eyes. You may see the “What if?” games as silly or as a self-indulgent waste of time. But, as we've discussed, the ability to imagine is a survival tool. It has allowed us to adapt to and eventually control our surroundings by imagining new and novel resources for ourselves. By forming mental images of highly unlikely scenarios, you are training your brain to think outside the proverbial box. The more you practice “what if-ing,” the more easily you will be able to visualize unusual scenarios and the more likely you are to come up with ideas when you need to generate a novel solution to a problem.

Neuroscience of the Envision Brainset

What does your brain look like when you access the envision brainset? The answer depends upon whether you're deliberately or spontaneously experiencing mental images and on whether you're generating mental imagery or manipulating it (making it move or altering it in some way). Let's look at this more closely.

Spontaneous Generation of Mental Imagery

If you decide to use mental imagery to help you solve a practical problem, the executive center in the prefrontal cortex is activated in the effort to call forth an image, maintain it, and decide how to manipulate it. The relative activation of the executive center determines your ability to control mental imagery.

Many creative individuals report having extremely strong spontaneous mental images when they are in a defocused state such as the absorb brainset or when they are taking a walk or nodding off to sleep. At such times the executive center is taking a break and relinquishing some control of the cognitive processes, allowing images generated spontaneously in the TOP (the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes of the brain) to more or less take on a life of their own. Charles Dickens is reported to have fended off imaginary urchins from his novels with his umbrella as he walked the early morning streets of London. Nikola Tesla, credited with inventing alternating electrical current, writes that he was walking silently with a friend one evening when a mental image of the idea for the AC generator came to him. “The images I saw were wonderfully sharp and clear and had the solidity of metal and stone.”²⁰

The most bizarre and uncontrolled mental imagery takes place during REM sleep, when dreams are most prominent. The executive center is relatively deactivated during REM sleep, while the vision areas and the association centers located in the rear areas of the brain are activated. This allows images and sensations, evoked by the firing of random neurons and uninhibited by the sleeping executive center, to take center stage in the mind.²¹ (Note that along with randomly generated images, some dream material is nonrandom and appears to relate to recent memory fragments. The reason that we dream and that both random and recent event material populates our dreams is still debated by scientists; however, one theory is that dreaming allows the integration of unassociated information in the creative problem-solving process.²²)

It's interesting that some control over the content of dreams—or at least awareness that one is dreaming—can occur during a state referred to as “lucid dreaming.” Lucid dreaming can be primed by presleep suggestions and also by certain forms of training. It appears that the executive center, which is normally at rest during dreaming, is partially reactivated during lucid dreaming and thus commands some control over the content of the mental imagery.²³

The presence of mental imagery, then, can be deliberately or spontaneously generated in the brain, depending upon the activation level of the executive center in the prefrontal cortex.²⁴ Likewise, mental imagery can be deliberately or spontaneously manipulated. Some of the most creative insights have arisen from the spontaneous generation of mental images during the illumination stage of the creative process and then consciously and deliberately manipulated after their arrival.

You can attempt to regulate the amount of deliberate or spontaneous control you have over mental images by regulating the activation of the executive center. The chapter on the absorb brainset provides exercises that mildly deactivate the prefrontal areas of the executive center. Other traditional (but not necessarily recommended) methods of regulation include dreaming, sleep deprivation, alcohol or drug consumption, meditation, repetitive or rhythmic exercise (such as long-distance running or trance dancing). One of the goals of this book is to teach you to modulate the activation of your executive center at will so that you can enter specific brainsets to facilitate creative thought and productivity. Envision Exercise #7 mimics the experiences described by many creative individuals. It combines the use of mental imagery with a state of physical relaxation.

Generating Versus Manipulating Mental Images

When you generate mental imagery, you use virtually the same systems of the brain that you use to process sensory information that comes in from the environment through your sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, skin, or taste buds). When you generate visual mental imagery, there is evidence that associational centers and the visual center of the brain are activated primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain. When you rotate or manipulate the images, these same areas may be more preferentially activated in the right hemisphere.²⁵

But what happens in the brain when you deliberately attempt to conceive of a novel object (combining the generation of a mental image with hypothetical thinking)? Japanese researchers, led by Yasuyuki Kowatari of the University of Tsukuba, investigated this question by asking both formally trained design experts and novices to mentally design a new pen while their brains were scanned using fMRI. They found that the most creative designs were correlated with relatively greater activation of the right prefrontal cortex and the left superior parietal cortex (corresponding to our right executive center and left association center), while deactivating the right parietal cortex. This finding is in keeping with other research that indicates the right prefrontal cortex is involved in the deliberate generating of novel and creative material.²⁶

The main pattern of activation, then, for the envision brainset is a network connecting the executive centers (particularly in the right hemisphere) to left association centers and to areas in the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes that are dedicated to processing information from your senses.

In this chapter, you've seen how you can evoke the activation pattern of the envision brainset to enhance mental imagery and increase hypothetical thinking. You've seen that you can use mental imagery to your advantage through both the deliberate and the spontaneous pathways to creativity. You've seen that the envision and absorb brainsets can be used in complementary ways. The more you practice the envision brainset, the easier it will be for you to envision creative solutions to problems. The envision brainset involves creative thinking using internally generated sensory information. But what if you tend to think in words? In the next chapter, you'll add a strategy that is based in verbal or word-based thinking. With the connect brainset, you'll learn techniques to increase the fluency of creative ideas in ways that will motivate you to greater innovation and productivity.

As for Caveman #2, his dreams of flying like the birds were not in vain. His ability to hold a mental image of his aspirations, along with the ability and determination of those who came after him, eventually led to human flight…

Exercises: The Envision Brainset

Envision Exercise #1: Visual Mental Imagery: Your Bedroom

Aim of exercise: To increase the ability to evoke vivid internally generated images. This exercise will take you around five minutes. Try to practice a version of this exercise once a day for a week.

Procedure: Begin by closing your eyes and imagining that you are standing in the doorway to your bedroom. (Note: if you are doing the exercise while in your bedroom, visualize a different room of your house or apartment.)

• Now in your mind's eye, look to your left and see the wall adjacent to the doorway. If there is furniture against the wall, see it. See any pictures, windows, or drapes that may be on this wall. If the open door is against the wall, see it as well.
• Now see the wall of your bedroom to your left that is at a 90-degree angle to the door. Visualize what is on the wall—windows, doors, curtains, furniture, pictures.
• Then move to the wall opposite where you are standing, and vividly see what is on that wall—windows, doors, curtains, furniture, pictures.
• Move to the wall that is at a 90-degree angle to the right of the wall where you are standing. Visualize what is on that wall—windows, doors, curtains, furniture, pictures.
• Finally, see the wall adjacent to the doorway to your right. And vividly notice whatever is there.
• Look around the room once again. Is the bed made? Are there clothes lying on the bed or the floor?
• Is there an odor in the room? Smelly gym socks or a scented candle? Take a moment to sniff.
• Now open your eyes. Try to imagine the four walls of your bedroom vividly with your eyes open. Move from wall to wall and try to see things in as much detail as you did with your eyes closed, superimposing the mental image on the actual space in front of you.

When you have finished the tour of your room, think about whether it was more difficult to image the room with your eyes open. Practice this exercise once a day for a week, using other rooms, your office, or a closet as the focus of your visualization. As you improve your ability to visualize with your eyes open, try this exercise when you're in a setting that is crowded or noisy. With practice, you can learn to envision productively in any setting.

If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.

Envision Exercise #2: Generating Multi-Modal Mental Imagery: Mental Holiday

Aim of exercise: To increase your ability to form vivid mental imagery, including visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory (smell) images. This exercise is also widely used to decrease anxiety and focus attention inward. You can read through the exercise and then complete the visualization, or you can download an audio recording of the visualization from http://ShelleyCarson.com. This exercise will take you five minutes. Try to practice it at least once a day for several weeks, adding more vividness and detail to your vacation each time you practice.

Procedure: Close your eyes and take three deep cleansing breaths. Now imagine that you are in a place where you have found relaxation and serenity in the past. This could be a quiet beach … or a mountain meadow … or a redwood forest. Imagine your place of serenity now.

• What do you see around you? Turn slowly so that you can see in every direction. See the scenery as vividly as possible.
• What are you hearing? Bird song, the crying of gulls? The sound of the surf? A distant waterfall? Imagine the sounds of your serene place as vividly as possible.
• What are you feeling? The warm sun on your shoulders? A cool breeze against your face? Refreshing sea mist on your face? Cool, smooth grass beneath your feet? Imagine the feel of your serene place as vividly as possible.
• What are you smelling? Fragrant flowers? The salty sea? The smell of pine? Imagine the fragrances of your serene place as vividly as possible.

Now … just enjoy your serene place for a few moments … as you continue to see, hear, smell, and feel all that is around you. When you feel refreshed, take another deep breath and open your eyes.

If you continue to practice this exercise once a day for several weeks, you'll notice an increase in the vividness of your mental imagery. You will also probably notice that the exercise has a calming influence on you and helps you to “turn off” the stream of verbal thoughts (which psychologists call “self-talk”) that constantly runs through your mind.

If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.

Envision Exercise #3: Visual Mental Imagery: Muscle Memory

Aim of exercise: To increase your ability to visualize objects pictorially using mental imagery. This exercise will take you five minutes. You will need a pencil.

Procedure: Stand several feet away from an object in your environment for which you would like to creative a vivid mental picture. Hold the pencil far out from your body and “trace” the object in the air with the pencil. Go over the outside edge of the object first, then trace the interior divisions or lines. When you have spent about two minutes examining and tracing the object in the air, close your eyes and try to envision the object. It may help to try to trace it in the air again with your eyes closed.

If this technique is helpful to you, try to do the exercise daily with progressively more complex objects. If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.

Envision Exercise #4: Mental Imagery: Floor Plan

Aim of exercise: To increase your ability to visualize objects diagrammatically using mental imagery. This exercise will take you under five minutes.

Procedure: Close your eyes and mentally visualize a floor plan of your house or apartment. If your house has more than one floor, visualize how the floor plan of the second level fits on top of the first. Which rooms are on top of each other? If you live in an apartment, try to visualize different levels of the apartment building. Is the lobby floor laid out differently from the upper levels? Spend several minutes in this visualization until you feel that you have the relationship between rooms and floors in their correct location.

You can complete this exercise with other buildings and spaces that are familiar to you.

For instance, you can practice by laying out a mental diagram of your front yard, your backyard, your street, your office building, or the local mall.

If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.

Envision Exercise #5: Manipulating Mental Imagery: Your Car

Aim of exercise: To increase your ability to manipulate mental imagery. This exercise will take you five minutes. You will need a stopwatch or timer and a car, preferably one with which you're familiar. If possible, park the car in a spot where you can walk around it at will.

Procedure: Stand about five feet away from the middle of the left side of the car. Take a look at the car, set the timer for one minute, and close your eyes.

• Now form a mental image of the car, imagining as much detail as possible. With your eyes closed, move your vision over the mental image from front to back, noting the lines and details of the car. When the timer sounds, open your eyes and look at the car, noting where your mental image was accurate and where it was inaccurate or vague.
• Now, without moving your position, set the timer for one minute again and close your eyes. This time, form a mental image of how the car would look if you were standing five feet directly in front of it. Try to see the edges of the car in perspective against the backdrop (whether it's the garage or an open space) and move your vision across the image from the passenger side to the driver's side of the car. When the timer sounds, move to the front of the car and see how accurate your image was. People are often surprised at how distorted the car actually looks from the front relative to their image.
• Once again set the timer for one minute and close your eyes. This time form a mental image of how the car would look if you were standing five feet away and at a 45-degree angle from the back passenger side tail light. Try to see the perspective formed by the edges of the car against the backdrop. With your eyes closed, visualize as much detail of the car from this angle as possible. When the timer sounds, open your eyes and move to the position from which you were forming your vision. Are you surprised by what you see or was your mental image pretty accurate?

Try to practice visualizing a familiar object from different angles each day. The more often you this, the better you will get at manipulating visual images in your mind.

If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.

Envision Exercise #6: Hypothetical Thinking: “What If?”

Aim of exercise: To combine elements of hypothetical thinking and mental imagery to improve imagination. You will need a stopwatch or clock. The exercise will take five minutes.

Procedure: Set the stopwatch for five minutes. Now visualize this scenario: We know that dolphins are intelligent and have large brains. Imagine that a deep sea race of dolphins have developed opposable thumbs and have been able to fashion a machine that allows them to live on dry land and communicate with humans. What changes do you see occurring economically? Socially? Professionally? How would you personally be affected? Allow your imagination to visualize the scenario and stay with it until the stopwatch sounds.

In order to fine-tune your imaginative abilities, practice a “What If?” exercise daily. To come up with your own scenarios, you can take stories out of the local newspaper and change one element of the story. For instance, what if the National Endowment for the Arts provided $200,000 to barbers and hairdressers to exhibit sculptures made of hair clippings? What if environmental groups proposed legislation that made it illegal to kill cockroaches? Make up one scenario each day and spend five minutes visualizing the consequences of your scenario. Don't let reality or propriety constrain your vision.

If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.

Envision Exercise #7: Mental Imagery: Modulation of Executive Control

Aim of exercise: To modulate prefrontal cortical arousal while using mental imagery to improve creative thinking. The exercise will take 15 minutes. Perform this exercise when you are physically exhausted. You may, for instance, try it after aerobic exercise or at the end of a long day. You will need to have an active creative dilemma in mind. You will also need paper and pencil.

Procedure: When you are physically exhausted, form a mental image of your creative dilemma.

• When you have a firm image of the dilemma as well as an idea of the kind of solution that would work for you (for instance, say your dilemma is that you need to come up with an idea for a new advertising campaign; you know your client's product and you know that the client wants to portray elegance rather than humor or affordability), just relax. You may either: (a) lie down and close your eyes, or (b) sit in a rocking chair, close your eyes and rhythmically rock.
• As you rest with your eyes closed, observe what happens to your image. If you feel yourself starting to nod off, give yourself the suggestion to dream about your image.
• After 10 or 15 minutes (or when you wake), immediately write down what has been going through your mind, even if it had nothing to do with your creative dilemma or your image. Note: It's important to write down any thoughts that you have while dreaming or dozing. Because the executive center (which you'll remember controls your working memory) is deactivated during these times, memories of your thoughts will be fleeting. That's why it's very difficult to remember dreams unless you try to recreate them immediately upon waking.

Try to do this exercise several times per week. The more you practice the more likely you are to keep the mental image of your dilemma in mind while you rest. In such cases it will be under less executive control and may mix with other spontaneous images in a way that could be useful to solving your problem.

If you're using the token economy system, award yourself one envision token each time you complete the exercise.